Light Presumed Extinguished
by YinYangWriter
Summary: Part 2 of 5 in L&S epilogue. LYOKO is far from behind them and someone wants to make contact with them again.
1. Reflecting on Friends

**I do not own **_**Code: LYOKO **_**or **_**Gargoyles**_**, but the characters of Eva Maverick and Kayla Olson are mine**_**.**_** This is my second installment of my epilogue to my **_**Code: LYOKO Light and Shadow**_** series. For a list of the **_**Light and Shadow**_** series in order, view my profile page.**

* * *

><p>Alex Xanatos was trying to contain his fit of giggles. He was watching the play the Kadic Academy students put on. It was about a month after he met the LYOKO warriors and became one himself. Odd Della Robbia had just sent him the video of their version of <em>A Midsummer Night's Dream<em>, along with the copy of the play that Puck wrote his thoughts in. It was simply hilarious! Aelita played an excellent Puck, very different from her quiet demeanor. And whoever was in charge of costume making had created a very playful, yet tasteful Puck costume. No bells or pointy shoes for Aelita, but there was quite a bit of pink throughout her wardrobe. Puck would have been happy with that.

"A merrier hour was never wasted there," Aelita was finishing her lines to the fairy girl before the King and Queen took the stage. "But room, fairy, here comes Oberon."

"And here my mistress," the fairy girl said. "Would that he were gone!"

Alex looked at the cast list that Odd had provided for him to see who was playing Queen Titania and King Oberon. The names were Claire Girard and Paul Gaillard. Queen Titania took the stage and then King Oberon. Alex's jaw dropped. He didn't know who Paul Gaillard was, but he knew for a fact that he was not playing Oberon in this play.

"Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania," a familiar raspy voice said in a cold tone.

It was Eva!

Alex lost control. He fell off his computer chair and howled with laughter on the stone floor. Alex got some control and looked up at the computer screen to see how things played out. Eva had talent, unless being cold was her usual personality, which was the vibe Alex got when he met her.

"What is going on in here?" asked David Xanatos from the doorway.

"Video from my friends," said Alex, wiping his eyes with his shirt sleeve.

"These wouldn't happen to be your friends from France, would they?" asked Xanatos, coming into the room and looking at the computer monitor.

"Those are the ones," said Alex.

Xanatos watched the play for about thirty seconds. "I noticed that you are always talking to them. E-mails, video chats, packages in the mail. You only saw them for one day and now they're your best friends, other than the gargoyles, of course."

Alex looked at his father. "Didn't you want me to make friends who were normal humans?"

"That was your mother's idea," said Xanatos. "But I would have to agree. It's a start, Alex."

Alex looked at his father with a smile, but it quickly disappeared. "What's wrong, Dad?" he asked.

Xanatos had his hand on his stomach. "It's nothing," he said. "I haven't been feeling well." He turned back to the computer monitor. "_A Midsummer Night's Dream_? Is it any good?"

"Hilarious," said Alex. "I think Puck would actually like this version. I hope he doesn't mind that there's a girl playing him."

"Really?" asked Xanatos.

"One of my friends, Aelita Stones," said Alex. He pointed to Aelita, who wasn't completely in the picture.

"And who is playing the famous King and Queen of the Fey?" asked Xanatos with a smirk.

"Well, Odd says Titania is Claire Girard and Oberon is Paul Gaillard, but I know that isn't right," said Alex. He pointed to Oberon's character. "He isn't a he. He's a she. It's Eva. I wonder what they did to con her into this. She's not the acting type."

"Oh? And what type is she?" asked Xanatos.

"She's more athletic," said Alex. "She threw a kid into a garbage can before."

"What?" asked Xanatos.

"The kid was picking on me," defended Alex. "And Eva's nice, once you get to know her."

There was a knock at the door. "Pardon the intrusion," came Owen's bland voice. "Alexander, another package has arrived in the mail for you."

"Yes!" Alex jumped out of his seat and took the box from Owen. "Thanks!"

Owen gave his customary bow and left. Alex stole a look at Owen's now flesh and blood left hand. Eva was a girl of many talents. It was she who gave Alex the incantation to reverse the magic of the Cauldron of Life. Puck wanted to know how Alex figured it out, but Alex would just shut his mouth and give Puck and oh-so-innocent look.

Alex remembered his promise. He would never speak of LYOKO to anyone but other LYOKO warriors.

"What is in those packages?" asked Xanatos. "This is the eighth one."

"Ninth," corrected Alex. "I'll tell you then, Dad."

"Well, I'll let you watch your movie," said Xanatos. "If it's that funny, you should show it to the gargoyles. I'm sure the trio will get a good laugh out of it."

"Okay," said Alex.

Xanatos left the room.

Alex made sure his father's footsteps were far down the hall before opening the package. Xanatos had a tendency to walk a few steps then double back to see what someone was up to. But Alex, being his son, knew the tricks.

Opening the package, Alex carefully removed the French newspaper that was used to cushion the cargo. What he pulled out was a figurine of hardened modeling clay not much larger than Alex's hand. It was a figurine of Alex in his LYOKO form.

Alex went into his closet and took out a large box. He put it on his desk and removed the lid. Inside was a diorama of the LYOKO warriors. Aelita stood with an energy field in her hands, Yumi was preparing to throw her fans, Ulrich had his sabers at the ready, William had his massive blade resting on his shoulder, Kayla had one hand on her hip and her mace/morning star in the other, Jeremy was posed with his blaster drawn, Odd looked like he was taking aim at a monster, and Eva was standing there, half of her body in deep blue and black while the other half was washed out slightly to make it look like she was turning invisible. There was one open spot on the diorama, Alex's spot. Alex carefully placed the last figurine in place.

"There. Finished."

Odd had been sending him these figurines with instructions for the diorama. It wasn't like they could send pictures over the internet, but they wanted Alex to have something to remember their LYOKO forms by.

They had to be very careful about discussing LYOKO now that they knew the men in black were looking for LYOKO and possibly Aelita. For now, XANA was contained after being revived by the men in black due to an error on Jeremy's account. The others had forgiven him for that. LYOKO was shut down now so XANA couldn't cause any trouble for them. Alex loved their stories and would listen intently to them. And it wasn't just their stories that kept him intrigued. Alex would video chat with them all the time to see how things were going. He would talk to Odd and Ulrich almost every day, William, Yumi, and Kayla every other day, and Aelita and Jeremy when they had time between study sessions. The only one who he didn't talk to on a regular basis was Eva. He wasn't sure why. He thought it was because that Eva was intimidating. The others had told him that things with Eva were tense, but she had to learn to get over them and talking to her would help.

Still, there was something about Eva that just creeped Alex out.


	2. Attack

Eva was sleeping, if you wanted to call it that. Kayla had stayed late to make sure that Eva was okay and had given her some cough medicine to help her sleep for once. It wasn't ideal and Kayla knew it, but she couldn't exactly ask her father for sleeping pills.

Eva was trying to rest in her drug induced haze. For as long as a day she had she was sure she could sleep without any help. That wasn't happening. The dreams were becoming worse and her headaches were becoming more frequent.

So far they had been able to hide everything from Jim, but that was becoming increasingly more difficult due to Jim taking Eva out to do family things. And by family things, he meant running the obstacle course and going to the public pool to teach Eva how to swim. The others were surprised to learn Eva couldn't swim, at least no more than to just stay alive.

"Good thing XANA didn't know that," Odd had said when they found out.

Eva rolled over. "This is annoying," she whispered before sitting up.

She went to her computer and turned it on. She thought that watching an online video would help her go to sleep. She got on the internet and was going through a few things when she started going through rhymes.

Eva touched the locket she never took off. She opened a blank document on her computer and began to type.

**The sun has set  
>The moon has risen<br>The day is done  
>Or is it the beginning?<br>Night is the gateway  
>To the land of dreams<br>The place where everything is  
>What you want it to be<br>Sleep, dear child, close your eyes  
>Fly through those midnight starry skies<br>Dash through those meadows so green  
>Drink from the cold streams clean<br>Climb great mountains, swim oceans deep  
>You may do it all when you're asleep<strong>

* * *

><p>It was breakfast time when Nicolas came to get Eva for breakfast. He was about to knock when he heard her raspy voice singing and the picking of a bass.<p>

"Sleep, dear child, close your eyes. Fly through those midnight starry skies. Dash through those meadows so green. Drink from the cold streams — "

The song and music ended abruptly. Nicolas frowned and was going to knock when the door flew open. Eva was standing there in her pajamas, which was a black T-shirt and gray plaid capris. Her hair was a mess and Nicolas could see at least two scars at her hairline that he normally could not see.

"That was beautiful," he said. "I didn't know you could sing like that. Where did you hear that song?"

The door closed in his face. Nicolas started to turn away.

"I came up with it about eight years ago," said Eva through the door.

Nicolas heard rummaging and realized Eva was just getting changed.

"It was Mackenzie's lullaby," she continued. "I haven't sung it in a long time."

"Since she died?" asked Nicolas.

There was silence on the other side of the door. Nicolas wondered if he said too much. Bringing up Mackenzie was a touchy subject, even when it was Eva who brought it up.

"Since she died," said Eva.

The door opened again and Eva was dressed in her oversized black T-shirt with it partially tucked in behind her raven belt buckle and her baggy jeans.

They walked out into the courtyard and to the lunchroom.

"You really should think of having Aelita record some of those songs of yours," said Nicolas.

"You think?" asked Eva.

"Yeah," said Nicolas. "You did that music video for art class and that was amazing. And you do know that Jim's nephew is the drummer for Subdigitals, right?"

"I think I heard something about that, yes," said Eva. "But I'm not pop star material."

"You don't have to be," said Nicolas. "Looking the part is only ten percent. It's the music that makes you famous. At least run it by Alex. The kid has a good ear for music."

"Okay," agreed Eva.

* * *

><p>After class, Eva and Nicolas met up with Aelita in the music room. Aelita had her laptop set up to record. Eva played bass and sang while Nicolas quietly tapped out a beat in the background.<p>

Aelita watched. At the end of the song, she wiped tears out of her green eyes. "That was beautiful, Eva."

"I'm not that good," said Eva.

"I think it's your voice that does it," said Nicolas. "It's so rough that the raw emotion comes out."

"Let's do another one," said Aelita.

"Ah! Only with everyone else," said Eva. "I have a work in progress that requires The Pop Rock Progressives."

Eva suddenly bent double, clutching her head.

"Eva!" cried Nicolas and Aelita.

Nicolas took her bass away and tried to get Eva to look at him. Her face was scrunched up in pain.

"Eva, is it your head again?" asked Nicolas.

"Yes," Eva ground out between clenched teeth.

"I should get Kayla," said Aelita.

"Get Yolande," said Nicolas. "This is the worst one yet."

"I'm okay," gasped Eva.

"No, you're not okay," said Nicolas. "Aelita!"

Aelita was just watching Eva. She seemed to be getting some relief and she straightened up.

"It stopped," said Eva, taking gulps of breath. "I'm fine."

Aelita shook her head. "This just keeps getting worse. I think we should have a doctor check you out, not just Kayla."

"No," groaned Eva. "I don't want to go to the doctor."

Aelita thought for a long moment. "Then let's do this," she suggested. "I'll tell Jeremy to run a scan on you."

"Won't you have to turn on the supercomputer to do that?" asked Nicolas.

"We are not risking XANA getting loose because I have a headache," growled Eva.

"It's for the best," said Aelita. "We'll find out once and for all what's causing these headaches."

Eva sighed. "Fine," she said. "Let's do it tomorrow. I want to get some sleep."

"Okay," said Aelita.

"I'll walk you back to your room, Eva," said Nicolas.

Aelita watched Eva and Nicolas leave. She packed up her laptop and went back to the dorm building as well. Instead of going to her room, she went up to Jeremy's.

Aelita knocked on the door.

"It's open," said Jeremy.

"Hey, Jeremy," said Aelita.

Jeremy was sitting at his computer. He turned around to look at Aelita. "Hey, Aelita. How did recording Eva's song go?"

"It was great, until Eva had another headache," said Aelita.

"Another?" asked Jeremy.

"Yes." Aelita sat on the bed. "I think they are getting worse. I thought Eva was going to start crying. She doesn't want to go to the doctor, so I suggested that you run a scan on her to see if there is anything we can do to fix it."

"We'll check it out tomorrow," said Jeremy.

"That's what she wants to do, too," said Aelita. "Nicolas took her back to her room so she can get some sleep."

"Those headaches really wipe her out, don't they?" said Jeremy.

Aelita looked at the clock. "Do you think Alex would be home at this time of day?"

Jeremy looked at the clock as well. "He's five hours behind us. Maybe not. Were you going to video chat with him?"

"I thought about it," said Aelita with a shrug. "I was going to send him a copy of the song I just recorded. I want to see what he thinks."

"Send 'Color Wheel', too," said Jeremy.

"Sure thing," said Aelita.

* * *

><p>Alex was out late with his family. He checked his computer and saw an animation of an elf with brown hair and a stocking hat knocking on the computer monitor to get his attention. Aelita had sent him something. He opened up the file and a song started playing, a lullaby. He read the e-mail that came with it.<p>

"Wow, this is Eva and Nicolas?" said Alex. "Man, she's really good."

Alex looked at the clock in his room. "Well, it's too late to call any of them. I doubt even Eva would be up at this time of night. I'll just send Aelita a message."

Alex composed his opinion to the song and sent it before climbing into bed.


	3. Writing on the Wall

Alex got up the next morning and loaded his MP3 player with the two new songs Aelita gave him yesterday. He listened to one of them, but the other he was just getting to hear. The Pop Rock Progressives as Odd called them were actually quite talented for a bunch of kids.

"What are you listening to?" asked Fox when Alex came into the dining room with his headphones around his neck.

"The Pop Rock Progressives," replied Alex. "Aelita sent me some of their stuff last night."

Fox came over and tilted her head so she could hear the music. The current song was "Color Wheel" and Yumi was belting out the chorus.

"Not bad," said Fox. "Are they popular?"

"Not yet," said Alex.

"Well, with a little luck and they could be famous," said Fox.

Alex smiled and ate his breakfast.

* * *

><p>No one saw Eva all day. Eva may have been one of the biggest names in school, but she could still blend and disappear like a phantasm and no one would notice that she wasn't there. But the LYOKO warriors knew when she was around and they were getting worried about their friend when she didn't show up at breakfast or lunch.<p>

It was Jim who was the first outside the gang that noticed that Eva wasn't around.

"Stern," Jim called to Ulrich when he saw him moving to his next class, "have you seen Eva?"

"No, Jim," said Ulrich. "Maybe Kayla knows."

Jim tracked down Kayla and asked her.

"I haven't seen her all day," said Kayla. "I called her twice, but it went straight to voice mail and I've left a bunch of text messages. Nicolas and Aelita said she wasn't feeling well yesterday. She might be in her room. I have an open period. I can check for you."

"Thanks, Kayla," said Jim. "Tell her to meet me in the main office. Her cousin is here to meet her."

"Her cousin?" asked Kayla.

"Yes," said Jim. "My nephew, Chris."

"Okay," said Kayla. "I'll let her know."

Kayla went to Eva's dorm room and knocked on the door. "Eva? It's Kayla. Are you awake?" Kayla listened and heard someone moving around the room, humming faintly. "Eva?" Still no answer. "Eva, I'm coming in."

Kayla opened the door.

Kayla knew Eva for two years and knew many of Eva's dirty secrets, things from her ability to easily forge documents to being able to pick locks and pick pockets. She even knew about the hunting knife that was kept under her pillow, which the LYOKO warriors knew about, too. But knowing all that did not prepare Kayla for this.

Eva had a marker in her hand and was currently writing on the wall above her bed. All around the room were numbers and symbols, on the walls, the desk, the windows, everywhere. Eva was scribbling away, humming "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" all the while.

"Oh . . . my . . . Eva? What are you doing?" asked Kayla.

Eva didn't answer. She completely ignored Kayla. It was like she was in a trance.

Kayla looked at Eva's handy work. She saw that there were several notebooks on Eva's desk that weren't completely closed. Kayla opened one and looked at what had been written. It was the same thing that was on the walls.

Kayla grabbed Eva by the shoulders and tried to get her to face her. "Eva? Eva, snap out of it!"

Eva pulled away and kept writing.

Kayla was at a loss at what to do. She pulled out her mobile and called Jeremy.

"Yeah?" whispered Jeremy into his mobile.

"Jeremy, you have to come up to Eva's room right now," said Kayla, frantic. "Something's wrong. Eva's having some sort of meltdown and I don't know what to do. She keeps writing on the walls. I can't understand any of it. Just get here."

"Okay," whispered Jeremy. He put his mobile away and raised his hand. "May I please go to the bathroom?"

Jeremy came up a few minutes later. Kayla was standing outside Eva's room, the door shut.

"What's going on?" asked Jeremy.

Kayla shook her head, her blonde hair falling over her shoulders. "I don't know. I can't get her to stop. It's like she's possessed or something."

"Let's see," said Jeremy.

They opened the door.

Eva was now sitting in her desk chair with a blank look on her face. She was still humming, but she was still. The section of the wall she had been writing on was all filled up.

Kayla and Jeremy stepped into the room. Jeremy stared at the walls, his eyes huge behind his glasses.

"Jeremy, what is this?" asked Kayla.

"It's a computer program," Jeremy said in awe. "She handwrote an entire computer program."

"What's it for?" asked Kayla.

"I don't know," said Jeremy. He looked at Eva. "Eva, what's this for?"

Eva continued to hum.

Kayla shook her head. "Eva's smart, I'm not denying it, but she doesn't know enough about computers to write out a complete program."

"I agree," said Jeremy. "Wait." Jeremy looked at Eva, listening carefully to what she was humming. His eyes went wider than Kayla thought possible. "Franz?"

Kayla looked from Jeremy to Eva. Eva stopped humming and looked at Jeremy.

"What?" whispered Kayla, her voice soft from shock.

"Franz Hopper?" asked Jeremy.

Eva nodded once.

"What is this?" asked Jeremy, pointing around the room.

Eva stood up and selected one notebook. She handed it to Jeremy. "Code: Phantasm."

Kayla let out a scream as Eva dropped to the floor like a marionette with its strings cut. She pulled her friend onto the bed and looked to Jeremy for help.

Jeremy had his nose in the notebook, flipping through pages.

"Jeremy, what does all this mean?" cried Kayla.

Jeremy didn't answer. He had paused in his reading.

"Jeremy!"

Jeremy looked up at Kayla. "He's alive, Kayla," he said. "Franz Hopper is alive."

* * *

><p><strong>Yes, I've done it! If you haven't figured it out already, Franz is making a comeback. Review!<strong>


	4. The Plan

It was an hour later when all the LYOKO warriors were gathered in Eva's room. Kayla had told Jim a completely believable lie about Eva having a massive migraine and did not want to be disturbed because noise and light made things worse. It was a partial truth. About twenty minutes after Eva's collapse, Eva woke up with a splitting headache. She had no clue what happened and Kayla was trying her best to explain what she was doing.

"You think my father is alive?" asked Aelita.

"I don't think," said Jeremy. "I'm positive."

"How?" asked Yumi. "It took everything he had to run the program to destroy XANA."

"It wasn't like he could upload himself to the network and hide himself from XANA," said Ulrich. "He was concentrating everything on destroying XANA."

"But that's exactly what he did," said Jeremy.

"What?" they asked.

"But wouldn't we have found him on the network?" asked Aelita. "After XANA was revived, he would have come to help us."

"He did upload himself to a network, just not one where we would have thought to look," said Jeremy.

"So where has he been?" asked Odd.

Jeremy looked at Eva. The others turned to her. Eva looked back at them.

"No way," said Ulrich.

"He's in your head," said William.

Eva was dumbfounded.

"Franz Hopper's words when he saved Eva were, 'Thank you. You hold all of the answers.'," said Jeremy. "We thought he meant us. He didn't. He meant Eva. Eva holds all of the answers."

"I don't get it," said Ulrich. "Why would he give Eva the answers and not Aelita? He doesn't know Eva."

"Because I would have been the obvious choice," said Aelita. "If XANA ever figured out my father found a way to preserve himself in someone, it would think he would be in me. The Scyphozoa would have destroyed us both."

"So when Eva fell into the digital sea with you, Franz Hopper took the opportunity to hide in Eva," said Yumi.

"Franz Hopper is alive, that's good," said Kayla. "But how do we get him out of Eva?"

"He told us," said Jeremy. "Look around. Eva's writings tell us how to do it. Hopper has been using Eva to give us the program to separate and bring him back to our world. All of this is Code: Phantasm."

"So he's been Eva's head this whole time, which means he's the cause of her headaches," said Kayla, understanding and excitement rising in her voice. "The headaches didn't start until after she fell into the digital sea."

"Hopper's been trying to reach out to us," said Jeremy.

"The voices," said Eva, causing everyone to turn to her. "They were memories. He was trying to tell me he's here."

"We have to help him," said Aelita.

"We will," said Jeremy. He picked up one of Eva's notebooks with the program written in it. "For now, we need to act as normal as possible. I'm going to take this to my room and create the program. We'll go to the factory tonight and bring Franz Hopper home."

"I just have to hope he doesn't decide to tell us something else," said Eva.

They all went to do their usual business. Eva went to Jim. He was in the main office with a young man with white hair and sunglasses.

"Eva, this is your cousin, Chris," said Jim. "Chris, this is Eva."

Chris took off his sunglasses and came over to Eva. "Jim's told me a lot about you," he said.

"She's quite the athlete," Jim said proudly. "And she's smart, too. When Gaillard couldn't play Oberon in the play, Eva took up the mantle without missing a beat. Loves her music, too."

"You like music?" asked Chris.

"I play bass from time to time," said Eva. "Aelita used her laptop to record one of my songs. And there was the music video we did for art class."

"Sounds like you know a thing or two," said Chris. "I don't know about the guys, but I wouldn't mind hearing you play."

"Okay." Eva rubbed her head.

"What's wrong?" Jim asked with a frown.

"Headache," muttered Eva. "I was trying to sleep it off."

"You should go to the infirmary and get some aspirin," said Jim.

"Good idea," said Eva, though she had taken more than the recommended dose and didn't dare take any more. "I can get you the recording of the two songs we have recorded. I'll have to get them from Aelita."

"Aelita? Aelita Stones?" asked Chris. He turned to Jim. "Isn't that the girl who won the opening DJ act?"

"Yes," said Jim.

"Okay," said Chris.

Eva left and went to get hard copies of the songs. She knew where Aelita kept her blank CD's and Eva burned a copy of the songs. Eva brought the CD to Chris.

"Thank you," said Chris, accepting the CD.

"If you want me to play, I think I can manage a little," said Eva.

Chris and Eva went to the music room. Eva's bass was still in the music room, no one thinking of bringing it up after her episode yesterday.

Eva began to play. "Here you go again. You're pushing us away, telling us to get lost. It's not us, but you, who cannot find your way. Now you're left in the frost. Don't be afraid to call out our names. Yell for us, we will come. Say 'save me' and we will. No matter what the outcome looks like, we will fight on still. Don't give up, hold on. Never surrender, stay strong. Powerful together, we will not relinquish, we'll carry on."

Chris looked at Eva with a strange look. "Whoa, you can play," he said. "Did you come up with that yourself?"

"Yes," replied Eva, putting her bass down. "I'm still working on it. I want the others to play with me."

"You have some talent, Eva," said Chris. "I might have to talk to Uncle Jim. You may be a roadie for our next tour. You know our songs, right?"

"I know a few," said Eva. "I can get them from my friends. They love Subdigitals."

"Cool," said Chris. "I'll talk to him about it."

"See you later, Chris," said Eva.

Eva went back to her room and went to sleep.

* * *

><p>Alex had a feeling that something was going to happen to one of his new friends. He e-mailed Odd to find out what was going on. Odd got back to him right away, saying that he was waiting to video chat with him.<p>

Alex got on. "What's happening?" he asked, seeing Odd and Ulrich's concerned faces.

"Remember what we told you about Franz Hopper in our stories?" asked Ulrich.

"Yeah," said Alex.

"Throw it all away," said Odd. "Hopper's alive."

"Huh? How?" asked Alex. He looked over his shoulder to see if his bedroom door was closed. It was.

"Somehow he managed to give a copy of his consciousness to Eva," said Ulrich. "He's been in Eva's brain for over a month!"

"It's why she has those headaches," said Odd. "Not that she wouldn't have them, considering all the whacks to the head she's taken over the years, but that's not the point. What matters is that Franz Hopper is alive and Einstein thinks he has a way of separating them."

"Actually, Hopper gave him the information," said Ulrich. "Eva had a meltdown today and she was channeling Hopper for a better part of the afternoon."

"Is she okay?" asked Alex.

"She's fine now," said Odd. "Hopper got his message across so I don't think he needs to take the controls anymore."

"We're going to do it tonight," said Ulrich.

"We're going to need all the help we can get," said Odd. "Do you think you can abracadabra yourself to the factory?"

Alex glanced around and lowered his voice. "It's not a matter of doing it. It's a matter of not being caught. Uncle Puck is going to know I'm gone the moment I leave."

"We'll have to figure something out to get around that," said Ulrich.

"Good luck!" snorted Alex. "He doesn't miss a thing."

"He must have with the return to the past we did," said Odd.

"Yeah, but he's been acting suspicious since then," said Alex. "Maybe because I fixed his hand. I don't know. I just know that the moment I leave home, he's going to be on my tail."

"He can't follow you to LYOKO, can he?" asked Ulrich.

"I don't think so," said Alex.

"Then you're set," said Odd. "We'll just tell Jeremy that you'll appear in the scanner and he's to get you to LYOKO lickety-split."

"Okay, I'm in," said Alex. "What time?"

"I don't know," said Ulrich. "We'll call you when Jeremy has the program ready. How's that?"

Alex would have been more content with an exact time, but if no one knew when the program would be finished, he would just have to wing it. "It'll work," he told them. "Just keep me in the loop."

* * *

><p>Dusk came and went and Jeremy was still inputting all the information for the program.<p>

Aelita and Ulrich came in to check on him.

"How's it coming?" asked Aelita.

"It's coming," said Jeremy, giving his hands a break and rubbing his eyes. "I've almost completed inputting all the information that Hopper gave us. I then need to run simulations to make sure nothing bugs up during execution. This is risky what we are doing."

"Wasn't it risky for my father to put a copy of his consciousness into Eva?" asked Ulrich.

"Putting himself in wasn't the trouble," said Jeremy. "Hopper knew what he was doing when he did that. It's getting him out that's dangerous."

"Dangerous?" asked Aelita.

"Hopper's an expert," said Jeremy. "I'm just a kid."

"A super smart kid who saved the world more than once," said Ulrich. "Hopper knows you can do this."

Jeremy nodded and went back to work.

It was midnight when the LYOKO warriors went to the factory. The program was ready. They were all gathered in the supercomputer room. Moments ago Jeremy fired up the supercalculator.

"Here is the plan," said Jeremy.

"Hold on," said Odd. He took out his mobile and dialed. "Alex? It's Odd. I'm going to put you on speaker so you can hear. Yes, we're getting ready to do it." Odd pushed a button on his mobile.

"As I was saying, here's the plan," said Jeremy. "This is going to be a two programmer job. I'll be on this end sending Aelita the information and Aelita will be running the program. I've chosen a tower that will have good cover from XANA's monsters. It's the tower in the ice cave behind the waterfall. Aelita and Eva will enter the tower and Aelita will go up to the top while Eva stays at the bottom."

"What about us?" asked Alex.

"The rest of you will guard the tower," said Jeremy. "As soon as XANA gets wind of this, it's going to come down on us full force. We'll need everyone to help out."

"Okay," said Alex. "When I appear in the scanner, you have to send me immediately."

"I'll send everyone else first," said Jeremy.

"Okay," said Alex.

"Ready to go?" Jeremy asked everyone.

"You bet," said Ulrich.

"Let's do this," said Odd.

"We'll bring him home," said Yumi.

They went to the scanner room.

"We'll do this in alphabetical order by last name," said Jeremy. "Odd, William, Yumi, you're first."

They stepped into the scanners and Jeremy sent them to LYOKO.

"Next are Eva, Kayla, and Ulrich," said Jeremy. "Alex, get ready to teleport."

Alex nodded and concentrated on where he wanted to be. He heard Jeremy send Eva, Kayla, and Ulrich.

"Aelita's stepping into the scanner right now," said Jeremy.

"Consider me there," said Alex.

"Transfer Aelita. Transfer Alex."

Alex appeared in the scanner just as the doors closed.

"Scanner Aelita. Scanner Alex. Virtualization!" Jeremy hit the enter key.

Back at the Eyrie Building in Manhattan, Owen stopped what he was doing and whipped around. Alex was using his magic. One second he was in the castle and the next he was gone. Before Owen could pinpoint Alex's location, his magic vanished altogether.

"Alexander, where have you gone?" whispered the fey in disguise.

They were all gathered near the waterfall. Jeremy sent their vehicles if they were needed. Aelita and Eva ran back the icy path behind the waterfall and went into the tower. Aelita went up to the top and Eva stood in the middle of the ground floor.

Aelita put her hand on the interface screen and logged in, immediately setting up the program.

"Everything's set, Jeremy," said Aelita.

"Are you ready, Eva?" Jeremy asked.

"Yes," replied Eva.

"I'm starting the program," said Jeremy.

Jeremy tapped a few keys and pressed the return button. The program started, a green plus appearing in the window. Eva was wrapped up in a white cocoon of light, completely cut off from everything else.

A window with Eva's advanced stats appeared and a second one for Franz Hopper that currently read one percent. "So far, so good," said Jeremy, leaning back in his chair.

"No sign of any monsters either," said Ulrich.

"They're probably sleeping," said Odd.

"Do they sleep?" asked Alex.

"Not sure," said Odd, shrugging. "But that's the excuse I use."

Five minutes went by, then ten, then fifteen. While Aelita and Jeremy were working, the others were just waiting around.

"How long is this going to take, Einstein?" Odd asked, becoming a bit impatient.

"As long as it takes," said Jeremy. "We don't want to rush this sort of thing, Odd. This is delicate work."

"I for one would like my best friend to come home in one piece and in a sound state of mind," said Kayla, looking over at Odd.

"Well, half that statement is plausible," said Yumi.

Kayla shrugged. "True. I don't want her to have another meltdown like she did this afternoon again."

"None of us do," said William. "It was disturbing for me when I came in. I can't imagine what it was like for you, Kayla."

"Sunshine's tough," said Odd breezily. "You've seen worse, right?"

"Unfortunately," Kayla said soberly. "At least this time she wasn't bleeding in some way."

"Huh?" asked Alex.

"Eva used to get hurt a lot," said Kayla. "I was the one to patch her up. My parents are in the medical profession. My mom's a nurse and my dad's a doctor. I know a few things about cleaning wounds."

There was a blip on Jeremy's screen. He took a close look at it. "Chit-chat time is going to have to wait," he said. "XANA's sending you some monsters."

"Nothing new," said Ulrich. "What are they?"

"Blocks," replied Jeremy. "I have two on my screen."

"Only two?" asked Yumi. "That doesn't require all of us."

"Stop them before they see you," said Jeremy. "If XANA knows all of you are there, it's going to know we're up to something."

"I'll take them," said Yumi.

"I'll back you up," said Ulrich.

The two of them got on their vehicles and sped to meet their welcoming committee.

"Ulrich and Yumi are more than capable of taking the blocks," said Jeremy. "Do not leave the tower unprotected."

"Got it," said Kayla.

A few minutes later, Ulrich and Yumi returned to the rest of the group.

Jeremy began looking over things with the program and the windows that showed him the lay of the LYOKO land. He saw there was activity in the corner of his screen. More monsters? XANA had to know by now that they were there.

A sudden alert icon appeared in the window of the program. Someone was trying to take control of the tower.

"Jeremy!" cried Aelita.

"I know," said Jeremy.

"What's going on?" asked Kayla.

"XANA knows we're up to something," said Jeremy. "It's trying to take control of the tower."

"Is there any way you can stop it?" asked Yumi.

"The defense program I wrote for the tower that was activated for the William clone," said Jeremy. He opened the file on his screen and began to put it in place. Jeremy looked at the window that showed the LYOKO land. There was movement, a lot of movement in the corner of the screen and moving toward the others. "Guys, you've got monsters. Lots of monsters."

They readied their weapons.

"Do not leave the tower unprotected," Jeremy reminded them.

"We got it, Jeremy," said William.

"Jeremy, I think something's wrong," said Aelita. "Something's happening to Eva!"

Jeremy pulled up Eva's stat window. Her life points were steadily draining away. "She's losing life points," said Jeremy. "A lot of them and fast!"

"Is it the program?" asked Aelita.

Jeremy checked. "I'm not sure, but she can't keep losing points like this. If she's devirtualized, we could lose Hopper for good."

"How many does she have?" asked Aelita.

"Right now, sixty and dropping," said Jeremy. He looked at Franz Hopper's loading window. "And your father is only forty percent complete."

"So Eva's losing life points, but my father is gaining himself back?" asked Aelita. She let out a cry. "This is like deciding who should live and die. I don't want to sacrifice either of them."

"Eva's strong," said Jeremy. "She may be able to hold on. But the way this is looking, one may survive and the other disappear."

Kayla, William, and Ulrich went to fight the monsters XANA was sending.

"Oh, boy," said Kayla, seeing their opponents.

Three megatanks were making their way to the tower.

"One for each of us," said William.

The megatanks stopped and took up their firing positions. They charged their weapons and fired.

Ulrich, Kayla, and William dodged awkwardly as the megatanks' blasts crisscrossed. Ulrich stopped one attack by crossing his sabers and William used his super smoke ability to get close to one megatank without being hit. He materialized and swung his blade hard. It sliced clean through the megatanks exposed insides. The other megatanks closed up and rolled, chasing down the LYOKO warriors.

Ulrich ran to the edge of the terrain and waited. The megatank chased him, intending to crush him. Ulrich used his super sprint at the last second to get out of the megatank's path. The megatank went over the side and fell into the digital sea, an explosion rising from below.

Kayla and William were working together to rid themselves of the final megatank. It opened up to fire at William.

"Get out of the way!" yelled Kayla, already having leaped into the air, her morning star ready to smash.

William disappeared. Kayla swung hard, the morning star chain extending to strike from a safe distance. The spiked head destroyed the insides of the megatank and the rest of it went flying apart. Kayla landed, the length of chain receding.

"Good shot," said William.

"Thank you," said Kayla.

Back at the mouth of the cave, Odd, Yumi, and Alex were waiting for instructions. They kept their eyes on the sky and checking for any sign of monsters who may make a sudden appearance.

In the tower, Aelita was trying to speed the process of separating Eva and Hopper. She shook her head. "Jeremy, this is taking too long," she said. The interface screen wavered, XANA's mark appearing for a split second. "Jeremy, XANA's trying to take control."

"I almost have the defense program in place," said Jeremy. He hit the enter key and a window appeared on his screen. It showed the tower and a shield being formed around it. "It's done!"

Another alert appeared on the Code: Phantasm window and one on Eva's stat window. Jeremy checked it out.

"Oh, no!" said Jeremy. "No, no, no."

"What?" asked Odd, voicing the question on everyone's mind since everyone could currently hear Jeremy.

"XANA tried to take control of the tower, but I put up the defense program in time," said Jeremy.

"That's good," said Alex.

"That part is," said Jeremy. "But I didn't get the shield up fast enough. XANA implanted a virus in the tower and it infected Eva. She can't be devirtualized!"

"What are you saying?" asked Kayla.

"I'm saying, if she loses all her life points, she'll disappear forever," said Jeremy.

"And she's still losing life points," said Aelita.

"How far along is the program?" asked Yumi.

"Fifty percent now," answered Jeremy. "I think I can find a way to counteract the virus, but even if I do, I won't be able to use it while the program is running."

"Eva, hold on," whispered Kayla. "Hold on."


	5. Code: PHANTASM

Things were getting more than a little tense. Jeremy didn't know how things could get any worse. XANA had implanted a virus in the tower and in Eva. If she lost all of her life points, she would disappear forever, Franz Hopper along with her. On top of that, she was steadily losing life points. She was currently at forty with more than forty percent of the Code: Phantasm program to go. Now XANA had sent more monsters and remaining LYOKO warriors were defending the tower.

"There has to be something I can do," said Jeremy. He went over all the options. He was locked out of Eva's stats because of the program. The defense program to keep XANA from taking control of the activated tower was in place, but that did nothing to defend the tower from the horde of monsters.

Odd was the first to be devirtualized, then Ulrich. Both came up to the supercomputer room at the same time.

"How bad?" asked Ulrich.

"Bad," replied Jeremy. "I don't know what to do."

Odd and Ulrich looked at the screen. They saw that Eva was losing life points and that Franz Hopper was being separated.

Kayla's picture appeared on the screen, turned over like a card, and disappeared. A second later they heard a frustrated scream from the scanners.

"Now it's down to Yumi, William, and Alex," said Jeremy. "Wait. Alex! Alex, do you read me?"

"Yeah, but this isn't the time to chat," replied Alex.

"Do you know how to use your telepathy at will?" asked Jeremy.

"Uh, I should be able to," said Alex.

"I need you to connect with Eva," said Jeremy. "Tell her she has to hold on."

"Okay," said Alex. "I never tried sending a message, but I can try."

"What good is that going to do?" asked Ulrich.

"We need Eva to fight for her life," said Jeremy. "If we can get her life points to stop dropping, we may have a chance to save them both."

Alex yelled to William, "I need you to cover me!"

William ran over and used his sword to shield them both.

_Eva, can you hear me?_

There was a faint reply. Alex assumed it was Eva.

_Jeremy says you need to hold on. Can you do that? You need to hold on or we could lose you both._

No reply this time. Alex hoped Eva heard his message.

"Her life points aren't slowing down," said Jeremy with a shake of his head.

Kayla put a hand on Jeremy's shoulder. "What exactly is the program doing?" she asked. "I know it's separating Hopper from Eva, but how is it doing that?"

"Right now, Eva is nothing but a file full of data," said Jeremy. "So is Hopper, but he's sharing a file with Eva. The program is sorting the data, Eva in her own file and Franz Hopper in a new file."

"You make it sound so simple," said Kayla. "I know it's more than that."

Jeremy nodded.

Kayla was silent for a moment. "This could kill her, couldn't it?" she asked.

Jeremy looked over his shoulder. "There is the possibility. At first, I thought the margin for that happening was so slim that it was inconsequential. But now, with XANA's virus and her steadily losing life points, it's safe to say that there is a very good chance of that happening."

Odd put his arm around Kayla's shoulders. "It'll be okay, Sunshine," he said. "Eva's the toughest person we know. She had a whole building come down on her before and she made it."

"We should tell Jim," Kayla said suddenly.

"What?" asked Ulrich.

"We should tell Jim," Kayla repeated. "We should get him now and bring him here. It would be the right thing to do."

"He would try to stop us," said Odd.

"There's nothing any of us can do about that now," yelled Kayla. "Even Jeremy can't stop it without killing Eva." She calmed herself, tears in her eyes. "This isn't like before. Before, besides us, no one would have cared what happened to Eva Maverick. She's not Eva Maverick anymore. She's Eva Maverick-Morales. She has someone who cares about her and loves her. We cannot leave Jim out of the loop any longer. He has to know."

The three boys looked at her.

"Okay," said Ulrich. "I'll get him."

"I'll go, too," said Odd.

They got onto the elevator and left.

"Kayla, I'm sorry," said Jeremy. "I should have told you all the risks before I started this."

"Shut up!" snapped Kayla. "I'm mad at you. Don't try smoothing things over with me. You just bring her back to us."

* * *

><p>Ulrich and Odd ran back to school. At this time of the night, Jim should have been in his room. That was the first place they checked.<p>

"Hey!"

They jumped and turned. Sissi was standing in her pajamas and bathroom, her hands on her hips, glaring at them.

"What are you doing up at this time of the night?" she asked.

"We can ask you the same thing," said Ulrich.

Sissi looked hurt. "We're friends now, Ulrich, or at least I thought we were."

"Whatever, Sissi," said Ulrich. "Right now we don't have time for this."

Sissi frowned. "What's going on?"

"It's a long story," said Ulrich. "But we need to find Jim."

"Jim's out searching the grounds for Eva," said Sissi.

"What?" asked Odd. "Why's he doing that?"

"Nicolas went up to Eva's room after lights were out," said Sissi. "He thought she would still be awake because he wanted to return her notes. He found her room graffitied and no sign of Eva. He called her a bunch of times, but it went straight to voice mail. He's out with Jim looking for her."

Ulrich hung his head. "This just keeps getting worse," he muttered. "Odd, find Jim and Nicolas. Sissi, put some clothes on. You're coming to the factory with us."

"What? I thought this LYOKO problem was solved," said Sissi.

"So did we!" Odd called over his shoulder as he raced to find Jim and Nicolas.

* * *

><p>Back at the factory, William was now standing with Kayla and Jeremy. He had been devirtualized only a minute ago.<p>

Jeremy was watching the screen intently. "Guys," he said. "Eva's life points have stopped dropping."

"That's certainly good news," said William.

"How many does she have?" asked Kayla.

"Twenty," replied Jeremy. "Make that nineteen. They are still dropping, just not as fast."

"What about Hopper?" asked William.

"Eighty-five percent complete," said Jeremy. "If Eva can hold on long enough, the program will separate them and then I can call them both in. The program the counteract XANA's virus is ready. If Eva can make it, we can bring her home. Aelita, how are you doing there?"

"Fine," said Aelita. "Everything's just about ready. The final part of Code: Phantasm is the same as Code: Earth. We just need to wait for my father to be completely separated from Eva and then we can use Code: Earth to pull him in."

A tremor rocked the tower.

Outside, Alex turned to see a hornet shooting the tower. "Oh, no, you don't," he growled. Alex fired at the hornets and took a shot in the arm.

"Alex, you're almost out of life points," said Jeremy. "Don't lose any more."

"I'll try not to," said Alex, flying out of the way of a crab.

* * *

><p>Odd found Nicolas out in the woods with a flashlight. "Nicolas!" he called.<p>

"Please tell me you know where Eva is," Nicolas quickly said. "I can't find her. She won't answer her mobile."

"She's on LYOKO," said Odd. "Something happened."

"Is she okay?" asked Nicolas.

Odd didn't know how to answer that. He shook his head. "It's bad," Odd finally said. "Do you know where Jim is?"

"The obstacle course," replied Nicolas. "He thought she may be there."

"Come on," said Odd. "We have to hurry."

A few minutes later they caught up to Jim.

"Jim! Jim!" called Odd.

Jim turned. "Della Robbia? What are you doing out here?"

"You were looking for Eva," said Odd. "I know where she is."

"You do? Where?" asked Jim.

"You're not going to like this," said Odd. "But we'll do our best to explain everything to you."

"Wait, you're going tell him about the factory?" asked Nicolas.

Odd nodded. "I don't have a choice. Like I said, it's bad. We have to hurry. Ulrich and Sissi are probably halfway there now."

* * *

><p>Alex let out a yelp as he was shot one last time. He found himself on the floor of the scanner. He pulled himself out and curled into a ball. "Sorry, guys," he groaned.<p>

A moment later Yumi was hit by a hornet and was sent back to the scanners, too. "No," she moaned as she stumbled out of the scanner.

"How much longer?" asked Kayla.

"It's at ninety-eight percent," said Jeremy. "Eva's holding on, but not by much."

The tower rocked again as it was bombarded with laser fire. Aelita was just waiting for the Code: Phantasm program to complete. Eva was holding on by only a handful of life points. Aelita wasn't sure how many, but it wasn't much.

The loading bar clicked up to ninety-nine percent.

"Come on, come on," Jeremy said.

Kayla was biting her lip.

William was holding Kayla's hand.

"Come on, come on," Jeremy said again.

The loading bar clicked up to one hundred percent and a green plus sign appeared.

"Yes!" yelled Jeremy. He rapidly typed on his keyboard. "Executing Code: Earth. Materialization Franz Hopper!" He hit the enter key. One scanner closed and began running.

"Jeremy, we need to get out of here," said Aelita. "This tower will be destroyed!"

"Hold on," said Jeremy. "I'm running the program to get rid of XANA's virus."

Aelita held her breath for a moment.

"Materialization Aelita! Materialization Eva!" Jeremy cried, his finger slamming twice on the enter key.

The two other scanners closed started to hum.

Everyone ran downstairs.

The scanner doors opened and Franz Hopper fell out. Alex and Yumi, who were still in the scanner room, caught him before he smacked off the floor.

Jeremy stood by another scanner and the doors opened to reveal Aelita.

Kayla and William were waiting by the final scanner. The doors opened and Eva lay on the floor. Kayla and William dragged her out.

"Eva," called Kayla. "Eva?"

Eva didn't move.

Aelita and Jeremy moved to Franz Hopper.

"Eva," said Kayla, giving her friend a shake. "Eva, it's over. You're home. We all made it home."

"Kayla," William said in a soft voice. "Is she breathing?"

Kayla checked for a pulse. "Oh, no," she breathed. "No. No! Eva!" Kayla began CPR.

"What's wrong?" asked Yumi.

William turned to them. "Eva's not breathing," he answered.

"What?"

"Oh, no."

The elevator doors opened and Ulrich, Odd, Sissi, Nicolas, and Jim stepped out.

"What is all this?" asked Jim.

"Oh, shoot!" hissed Ulrich, seeing Kayla preforming CPR on Eva.

"Eva!" shouted Jim.

"Jim, stay back," said Ulrich, grabbing the man's arm.

"Call an ambulance!" shrieked Sissi.

"And what? How do you tell them about this?" asked Odd.

"Come on, Eva," grunted Kayla, choking back her sobs. "Come back to us."

Kayla did a few more chest compressions. Eva suddenly woke up, gasping for air. She rolled over on her side. Kayla leaned down to hug Eva.

"Don't scare me like that," said Kayla.

Eva said nothing, just lay on her side getting as much air into her lungs as she could.

Jim looked at the other person on the floor. "Franz Hopper?" he said in confusion. "But he's been gone nine years."

"He'll be okay," said Yumi. "He's breathing and there doesn't appear to be any problems."

"We'll know more when he wakes up," said Jeremy.

They tried their hardest to explain to Jim what they had been doing for the past two years. Jim got the general concept of things and said that he would figure things out in the morning.

Franz Hopper woke to everyone gathered around him.

"Hi, Daddy," said Aelita.

He turned to her. "Aelita," he said. "You did it. You got my message."

"Yes," said Aelita.

Father and daughter hugged for the first time in nearly a decade.

Hopper turned to Jim. "Hello, Jim," he said. "It's been a while."

"Hello, Mr. Hopper," stammered Jim.

Hopper turned to Eva. She was on the floor, leaning against a scanner, Kayla kneeling beside her. "Sorry for all the trouble I caused you."

"Don't mention it," said Eva.

Hopper turned to Aelita. "You have a very good friend," he told her.

"We all do," said Aelita, looking at her friends.

They all smiled.

"Jalepena!" Alex suddenly yelled. "I got to get back!"

"Then go!" said Odd. "We don't want to get you in trouble."

"I'm already in a world of it," said Alex. "If I'm still alive tomorrow, I'll give one of you a call."

Alex got into the elevator and pushed the up button. As soon as the doors closed, he teleported back to Manhattan.

"Uncle Puck is going to kill me," he muttered to himself when he appeared in his darkened bedroom.

The light suddenly switched on. Sitting in midair was an elf with long white hair dressed in a red shirt, blue tights, a purple tunic, a yellow belt, red boots, and a golden cuff on each wrist. Ice blue eyes were focused on Alex.

"And just where have you been?" Puck asked.

Alex wasn't sure how to answer. If he lied, Puck could come up with a nasty punishment if he was caught in it, and he couldn't tell the truth because he swore to the others he wouldn't tell anyone about LYOKO.

"I'm waiting," said Puck.

Alex shook his head, his eyes directed on the floor. "I can't tell you."

"What do you mean you can't tell me?" asked Puck, annoyed. "You've always told me everything. Starting to keep secrets, are we? Hmm. Well, I don't know how you did it, but you managed to disappear from my watchful eye for more than two hours. And I assume you were visiting your friends in France."

Alex nodded.

"A little late for them to be visiting, don't you think?" asked Puck. "They're five hours ahead of us, after all. Unless they're nocturnal."

Alex made a sound between a nervous laugh and a snort of amusement. If you took into consideration Eva's insomnia, one might say one of his friends was nocturnal.

"So are you going to tell me anything else?" asked Puck.

Alex shook his head. "Not tonight," he responded. If he talked things over with his friends, maybe they would give him permission to tell his family about LYOKO, or at least Puck. Alex didn't like keeping secrets from his favorite uncle.

Puck prepared to leave the room.

"Puck," Alex said.

"Yes?" the elf asked.

"It was Eva," Alex said. "She told me how to reverse the Cauldron's curse."

Blue eyes widened in surprise.

Alex got changed and crawled into bed. "Good night."


	6. Including Jim

The next day was normal for Alex as normal could be. His parents didn't know he was missing last night. Puck must have been keeping leverage on Alex, though Alex couldn't see why he would be doing that. Maybe Puck was just waiting for an explanation before going to his parents.

When he knew the others would be out of the classroom, he called Jeremy.

"So how did things work out after I left?" asked Alex.

"Good," replied Jeremy, sitting in front of his computer in his dorm. "Putting the finishing touches on a few documents. Turns out that Franz Hopper hid the deed to the Hermitage. No one's been able to claim it. Then again, not many people knew it was there to begin with. What about you? Did you get in trouble?"

"Not really," said Alex. "Puck was the only one who realized I was gone. He wanted to know where I was and what I was doing, but I kept my mouth shut. I don't like lying to him."

"Maybe one day you can tell him," said Jeremy. "Some of us have been waiting a long time to tell our closest friends and family members."

"How are Hopper and Eva?" asked Alex.

"Franz is doing well," said Jeremy. "His name will now be Franz Stones. We need to create a cover ID for him. Franz Hopper has been missing for years and Waldo Schaeffer is being hunted by the government. Besides, before Aelita got her memory back, we gave her the name Stones. As for Eva, as well as can be expected. She's a bit sore from Kayla having to preform CPR, but she's okay. Jim's taking everything very well. I think he's just glad Eva's safe."

"I would be, too," said Alex.

"So how are things at home with your mom and dad?" asked Jeremy.

"Good," replied Alex. "Mom and Dad didn't know I left. Puck didn't tell them as far as I know. Dad hasn't been feeling well. I think he's got a stomach bug. I have a question about Franz: what is he going to do now? He's been missing for years, it's not like he can just pick up where he left off, can he?"

"We're figuring that out," said Jeremy. "Right now we're trying to get the Hermitage back in his and Aelita's possession. We can go from there."

"If you need help, let me know," said Alex. "I'm sure I can find a way to help out."

"Cool," said Jeremy. "I'll talk to you later. I'm almost done with these documents. The only thing they need now is a signature."

"Talk to you later, Jeremy," said Alex.

* * *

><p>At the Hermitage, the rest of the LYOKO warriors, Franz, and Jim were cleaning up almost a decade of debris. Aelita and Kayla were sweeping the bedrooms, Odd and William were cleaning the kitchen, and Ulrich and Yumi were cleaning the living room. Franz was seeing what he could do for the bathroom. Eva and Jim were up on the roof checking for leaks.<p>

"You gave me a scare last night," said Jim.

"I gave everyone a scare," said Eva. "I have a feeling it won't be the last time."

"You like to live on the edge," said Jim. "I remember when I was your age, I was like that. It was why I joined the army."

"From what I'm told, you were a lot of things, Jimbo," said Eva.

"Yeah," chuckled Jim. He frowned. "Hey, how do you know my old nickname?"

"Odd told me," replied Eva. She took a careful look at the roof. "This roof is going to need completely replaced."

"You're telling us!" Odd said from the large hole in the attic. "This roof has more holes than a strainer."

"And the electrical is less than to be desired!" William shouted from downstairs.

"If we can save the world from XANA, we can certainly fix this house!" yelled Kayla.

Jim and Eva came inside to see what else could be done.

"You know, Chris was talking to me about you going on tour with him this summer," said Jim. "Summer's not that far away. Do you think you would like to go?"

Eva thought for a long moment. "It would be nice," she said. "Hopefully this entire mess with LYOKO is finished now."

"Chris also said you were working on new music," said Jim.

"With the others," said Eva. "We'll see how things go."

"If you would like to go, I'll talk to Chris and we'll set something up," said Jim. "I have a feeling you'll get along with him just fine. Let's go back to school. I'm getting hungry."

"So am I," Odd chimed in.

"You're always hungry," said Ulrich.

"Do you want us to bring anything for you, Daddy?" asked Aelita.

"No," said Franz. "I have some pocket money. I can buy food."

They started back to school.

"Eva?" Aelita said softly.

"Hm?" Eva glanced at Aelita.

"Thank you for bringing my father back to me," said Aelita.

Eva shook her head. "Don't thank me. I didn't do anything. I was just the messenger."

"But still, thank you," said Aelita. "I have a chance at leading a normal life now."

"Aelita, nothing is normal for us," said Eva.

Eva gave Aelita one of her very rare smiles.

* * *

><p><strong>Franz Hopper's back, Eva's headaches are gone, Jim knows their secret, so what next? Keep your eyes open because there is still more to this saga.<strong>


End file.
